Alien beings make themselves known only to the US military through a small series of hostile acts. They shoot down a couple of jet fighters and kidnap a commercial airliner packed with passengers. The one communication they offer is a request for an Earth base in an isolated canyon in New Mexico. Whether the aliens have come in peace or not is up to the President to decide. The President’s advisers split. The hawks say not to give up any territory without a fight, what the American Indians should have done with Columbus. The doves say let them land, that it’s insane to start a shooting war with a superior power. The doves hope to deal with them, for the secrets of their technologies.